Scottish SPCA reports busiest ever year

The Scottish SPCA has described 2013 as its busiest ever year, with a record number of calls to its animal helpline, pets rehomed and wildlife saved.

Scotland’s animal welfare charity also carried out more investigations than ever before, with an average of more than one person being banned from keeping animals every week.

Calls to the Scottish SPCA animal helpline leapt to 228,143 last year, 17% more than in 2012.

Chief Superintendent Mike Flynn said: “Many of the calls we receive are from people reporting suspected neglect and mistreatment, alerting us to animals in danger and either wanting to rehome an animal or asking us to take in their pets.

“In 2013 our investigations increased from 17,373 to 20,111, we found loving new homes for 6,563 pets and we were able to rehabilitate and release 2,939 wild animals. These were all records in what was our busiest ever year.

“With the demands we are facing increasing rapidly, we are continuing to invest significantly in our capacity to take in and help animals.

“Last year we announced the £4.8 million extension of our rehoming centre in Glasgow, known locally as the Glasgow Dog and Cat Home. This follows the opening of our National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Clackmannanshire and our rehoming centre in Aberdeenshire in previous years.”

Horrifying animal cruelty cases dealt with by the Scottish courts in 2013 included a Stirling puppy dealer who mistreated 57 dogs being jailed for eight months, a Larkhall man being banned from owning animals for six years for breaking his dog’s leg by throwing her down stairs and a Perthshire farmer receiving a lifetime ban for neglecting over a thousand sheep and cattle.

“We can’t be certain if cruelty is increasing as more people are aware of how we can help animals, which means we are possibly uncovering cases which may not have been reported in previous years,” said Chief Supt. Flynn.

“However, we know our inspectors were faced with a catalogue of neglect and abuse. While most of the cases we dealt with were caused by ignorance and a lack of understanding of what an animal needs, many involved wilful and mindless cruelty.

“Last year 58 people were banned from owning animals, which is a shameful average of more than one a week.

“We can be encouraged by the fact that so many people called our helpline because they care for animals. That’s a very positive sign and suggests overall we are still a nation of animal lovers.

“Investing in education is vital if we are to get our message through to sections of the Scottish public who don’t treat animals as they should.

“Our free Prevention through Education programme reached over 300,000 children in 2013, which is an essential and significant step in the right direction as this will have a profound difference for animal welfare in Scotland for generations to come.”

Anyone aware of an animal in danger or distress should call the Scottish SPCA animal helpline on 03000 999 999.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Galloway Gazette provides news, events and sport features from the Newton Stewart area. For the best up to date information relating to Newton Stewart and the surrounding areas visit us at The Galloway Gazette regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Galloway Gazette requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.